New wheels

Check out the awesome new stroller my parents got us. It's a Joovy Caboose and we took it for a test drive at Oktoberfest last weekend and it worked great! It held Pryce in his carrier and then E could either sit or stand on the back (although so far we've only shown E how to sit so he'll stay strapped in) Thanks Baba and Gigi!

Everett had SO much fun at Oktoberfest. We spent most of our visit in the main tent and he LOVED running around on the dance floor. I took a little bit of video that I'll post below but it really didn't capture the true energy and fun that was being had. I only caught him before the band started and then when he was about worn out so you'll miss seeing him really dancing to the music and clapping after the songs. We'll definitely be going back next year!

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Baby bath

We were playing outside with Everett last week and David decided to bathe Pryce out there. When he was done, Everett wanted to take a bath in Pryce's tub also. Silly boy. The last picture is him pointing at the sky because an airplane was passing. He seems interested in airplanes now. He has added "plane" to his vocabulary along with "sun" and "sky" - all things he likes to point out to us.

An update - I did make an appointment with the Early Childhood Intervention program our pediatrician referred us to to evaluate E's language development ... but after I told his teachers this they have started telling me every time I pick E up what new words he said that day and that he's doing fine and I shouldn't worry. I decided to trust their judgment. After all, they interact with E a lot more than his pediatrician and they have much more experience than I do with watching children develop at this age. Yesterday when my parents took E to the daycare at the gym, the caregiver also commented on how E is talking now. So I cancelled the appointments. The first was going to be this week with an intake coordinator who would just come to the house to meet E and tell me about the program. Then in October a specialist would come to the house to evaluate E. I figure I can always call back and reschedule if we don't continue to see progress.

My Boys

Last Wednesday night I found my boys hanging out on the bed together watching TV ... I thought they looked pretty cute.

Pryce - 4 weeks old

I love watching all the faces Pryce makes after he eats. He often smiles, frowns & stretches after a meal and looks pretty darn cute. I tried to catch one of his smiles today, but it was a little difficult while I was holding him. If you look carefully, you can see he has a dimple on his right cheek.

Last night David put Pryce on the floor on his belly and witnessed him roll completely over to his back on his own! Isn't it too early for that?

Pryce continues to be a good eater. I heard David comparing his growing physique to a snake who just swallowed a pig. His belly sure sticks out after a meal.

Cousins

Have I mentioned what an affectionate child Everett is? He loves to give hugs! Looks like Karly is a hugger too!

Two year check-up

Everett had his two year check-up today. Here's the highlights:
- He weighed 29.8 lbs and measured 36" tall which put him in the 75th percentile for his age.
- I was told to switch him to skim milk and start giving him vitamins. Flintstone vitamins are now on the shopping list.
- The doctor didn't think his molars are coming in yet ... I thought they might have been to blame for Everett's very fussy moods the past couple days but I guess not. He had the biggest meltdown David and I had yet to witness last night and we never could figure out what triggered it.
- His eyes were tested and there were no vision problems detected.
- The doctor was concerned about Everett's limited vocabulary. At his age we should be able to understand at least 50 words that he says and I estimated he's only saying about 15 words really clearly. I was referred to a company that will come to the house and do a speech assessment. I'll call them tomorrow for an appointment.
- It's time to ween him off the pacifier. And we think he's fussy now ... Yikes! I bet we're in for a LOT of whining in the near future. We decided to wait until this weekend to start hiding the pacifiers. The doctor said using a pacifier could also impede his speech development. Ironically, Everett used to only use his pacifier at nap and bed time. His school recently told me he fell asleep without his paci so they suggested weening him off of it at school. He's gone almost a week at school without one ... now when he gets home it's one of the first things he wants and he uses it much more often. I guess I should have also been simultaneously weening him from it at home. My concern was trying to ween one child off a pacifier when there's a newborn in the house who has one. Wish us luck!
- The doctor guessed it would be another 4 or 5 months before we should start thinking about potty training.
- E received one vaccine - HepA - the tears lasted all of 2 seconds. He was a really happy camper when we left and he got to pick out his lollipop and dinosaur sticker.
We stopped by Gigi and Baba's on our way home to pick up Pryce and eat some lunch. Everett went down for a nap as soon as we got home and slept for 3 1/2 hours. Unfortunately, I think he may have gotten a little too much sleep as it was after 10pm before we got him to sleep tonight. I hope that doesn't mean we're in for a cranky kid in the morning!

More Bday wkd pictures

Grandma & Grandad Rankin and Amy, Maddie & McKenzie all came into town to help us celebrate Everett's birthday. Everett had a lot of fun playing with his grandparents and the girls.

Yes, I realize he's MUCH top big for this swing and I'm sure he'll eventually end up breaking it, but he sure was cute swinging in it. He's shown interest in all the things we use for Pryce. I've also found him sitting in his old bouncy chair and today he was sitting in Pryce's car seat. I'm sure they'll all lose their novelty soon and he'll lose interest.

Happy 2nd Bday Everett!

Today Everett turned TWO! We celebrated on Saturday with a party at Planet Pizza. Everett and his friends had a blast! Everett blew out his birthday candle all by himself. It was fun to see him get excited about opening gifts for the first time. You can see some party pics on our photo site.

Pryce's 2 week check-up

At this second doctor's visit, Pryce was 2 weeks & 5 days old. He weighed in at 7lbs 14oz - quite an increase from his last weigh-in of 6lb 4oz! His weight put him in the 25th percentile and his height (or length rather) was 21 inches (50-75th percentile). His head measured in the 10-25th percentile.

No vaccines today but they did do the awful foot prick blood test where they squeeze a ton of blood out of his little heel to run a battery of state mandated tests. Surprisingly, he only squawked for a few seconds and then went back to sleep. It seems like I remember Everett screaming through the whole ordeal. So far it seems that Pryce is a little more mellow than I remember Everett being ... but that could really be the result of me being a more mellow Mom the second time around. I'm sure I was quite a bit more neurotic as a first-time Mom!

Misc photos

A few random photos from the past week or so.

Everett brushing his teeth. Everett is a pretty good brusher and could probably spend a good hour standing at the sink brushing if we let him.



Pryce napping in the bassinet.
and "exercising" on the Winnie the Pooh quilt Grandma Rankin made him.Everett wearing the sailor hat that came with the cute baby gift Ben & Tracy sent. It was a stuffed Octopus made up of baby towels, receiving blankets, socks and, changing pads. All things that will be put to good use!
Everett helping to wash Daddy's car. I missed the really fun shots that followed this because I was inside taking care of Pryce ... but the next time I saw David he was sopping wet with water splashed all over his face and glasses. Apparenty Everett discovered spraying Daddy (instead of the car) with the water hose is much more fun!

Pryce's first checkup

On Friday, August 24th our five-day-old Pryce made his first visit to the doctor's office for his first checkup. He weighed 6 lbs 4oz and the doctor said he looked great. Here's a few pictures of him with Daddy taken while we waited to see the doctor.

Big Brother

Here's Everett about to leave for school for the first time after having his little brother home. I think Everett's teachers must have made a big deal out of his new "big brother" status and t-shirt because it now seems to be his favorite t-shirt.

Welcome Wagon

Aunt Jenny brought over this adorable "welcome wagon" cookie bouquet after Pryce was born. Not only was it incredibly cute ... it was REALLY yummy too!

Happy 1st Bday Karly!

My sweet niece, Karly, turned one on August 18th. We celebrated with a party on the 26th and the kids all had a great time. Here's a few of the pictures.

Here's a video montage from the party. It's a little long (about 6 minutes), but I just didn't have time to edit it much!

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